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Re: Adonizing Mokume.....can it be done??

Is the tube already epoxied in? If not, you could probably heat color it and get the copper to turn a blue/purple shade. Also, I don't know how well the epoxy that may be holding the vial in would do submitted to the various baths of nickel plating.

I'd be happy to heat color it for you if you can get the vial out. No guaranty that the color will be the exact shade you desire, but the copper color should be gone.

Plus as with all heat colored metals, they are subject to wear, which will remove the coloration over time. With mokume, that might actually look pretty sweet.

Re: Adonizing Mokume.....can it be done??

I don't think this will be possible sorry to say.
first the vial is super glued in place
second the mokume is an alloy of copper and aluminium and a special bonding agent to give strength
I would not heat any type of mokume as the melting point is so low.
this will interfere with the molecular bond of the two metals
cheers Jason

Re: Adonizing Mokume.....can it be done??

cheers

in hindsite Kid9P should have asked for a damascus bead
(made from 1095 and 15N20) it would have been the right colour from the start
however I may not have attempted it due to the extra difficulty involved in working harder steel... thems the breaks

damascus steel has hard and soft layers even when its annealed so this does cause problems when the subject is 0.345" round

maybe later I will buy some stainless damasteel to use
this will be the easiest to dremel/carve
unless someone wants to donate some to me
it is double the price and hard to get here in Australia

chad nichols and robert eggerling sell stainless damascus in USA
I will look at getting some soon

Re: Adonizing Mokume.....can it be done??

I am using the smallest round head HSS tipped burrs

they are about the size of a pin head maybe slightly larger...this is the best way to get the detail shapes etc

on some softer materials I use a larger dovetail shaped head for carving a semi circle shape to make the start of an eye for the skull beads,
when I used this on damascus steel that was annealed the burr lasted only one time before it dulled and became useless

carbide burrs last much longer but you need to be careful as they can break
especially on damascus steel

Re: Adonizing Mokume.....can it be done??

Howdy Gollum, I guess I will have to anneal the steel before trying any shaping. I used a hss burr and it didn't fare too well against the hardened damascus. I knew it wouldn't last long but it didn't really even put a dent in it. Annealing wont be a problem and will make drilling much easier too methinks.
- Thanks

Re: Adonizing Mokume.....can it be done??

yes you'll have no chance to shape or drill hardened damascus...

apart from being 56+ rockwell at the least,the harder/softer layers make any shaping very difficult

if you are doing intricate detail shaping this will still be difficult when annealed...
I would recommend full normalizing (cycling at least 3 times through the critical temp of the steel)
and annealing if you need to do very detailed work